Mechanism for feeding air and steam to furnaces



(No Model.) y 'D. BENSHAW.

MECHANISM FOR FEEDING AIR AND STEAM T0 FURNAGES. No. 251,797. Patented Jan. 3,1882.

JZ i UEIZZOI? ZJMM TATES warren PATENT OFFIce.

DAVID RENSHAW, OF OOHASSET, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HARVEY T. LITGHFIELD, OF HULL, MASSACHUSETTS.

MECHANISM FOR FEEDING AIR AND STEAM TO FURNACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 251,797, dated January 3, 1882.

Application filed November 1, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it. known that I, DAVIDRENSHAW, of (lohasset, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mechanism for Feeding Air and Steam to Furnaces; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same.

The object of my invention is to burn or consume the combustible products arising from furnaces in which fuel is burned, so as not only to prevent the nuisance arising from the noncombustion of fuel-such as smoke and other Waste gasesbut to produce an increased, uniform, clear, and pure heat, and consequently the economy of fuel, as well as other resultant advantages.

The further object of this invention is to cause an even and intense incandescent fire evenly distributed all over the furnace by evenly distributing a supply of air or air and steam in such manner as to reach all parts of the furnace.

The invention is applicable to furnaces in "whichhigh and uniform temperature is reair break into flame.

quired, such as is used for mauufaeturingiron or steel, glass furnaces or retorts, and also to vertical and horizontal boilers.

' V The manner in which this invention may be carried out will be readily understood from the accompanying drawings ,as will be hereinafter further described.

The said invention consists in locating in the furnace one or more rotating perforated pipes, either adapted for air alone or steam and air combined. These pipes may be arranged transversely across the furnace or longitudinally through the same, or at such other portions of the furnace as will best produce'the required result. These revolvingpipes are equally applicable to furnace-chambers in which pulverized fuel, bituminous, orcoking co'als are used, from which, inbecoming incandescent, large quantities of gases are thrown off, but when mingled with a proper supply of atmospheric It will also be found valuable where anthracite and semi-bituminous tions it can be adapted to burn the various hydrocarbons and other gases.

I'have so far proceeded upon the well-established theory that perfect combustion within a furnace must of necessity obviate the waste ful discharge therefrom of combustible matter, whether solid or gaseous, and that with a high degree of combustion no smoke is produced. To attain. these ends I employ well-known elements, as before described, and which have heretoforcbeen combined and arranged in various ways, and. with othernovel features I make use of some of these elements with relation to each other, as will more particularly appear and be pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings, where such letters of reference are used, A is the outer shell of masonry; B, the furnace; O, the grate-bars, andD the ashpit. E is the perforated rotating air or air and steam supply pipe, provided with hundreds of jets of heated air to the fuel on the furnace. The perforations are preferably made flaring or funnel shape, or the pipe may be cast with nipples for the purpose of giving additional heat to the air or steam on its passage to thefuel. These nipples may be cast in bulbs, thus forming air-cells within them. Should these perforations become choked up, they may be blown outor cleaned by any well-known means. The grate is of ordinary construction; butit. is evident that a grate adapted to the kind of fuel to be used may be substituted; and ifhydrocarbons be used as fuel, then, of course, burners for that purpose Will be supplied.

The furnace-chambershown in'the drawings is of rectangular shape; but of course it may be round, cono'idal, or other form to suit location. Thus it will be seen that the furnace used with my device takes the character and produces the results of a reverberatin g furnace without the additional expense. The perforations are arranged to break joints in their location on the revolving pipe, thus compelling and retarding the flame and heat longer in contact with the atoms of air or air and steam combined than it otherwise would, and in this way a better admixture of the gases takes place, and consequently a more perfect combustion,

and also causing them to impinge on all sides of the surface to be heated.

The rotating pipe E extends outside of the furnace at one end, which end is open. The pipe isjournaled in the side wallsof the furnace, of course as near the outside of the wall as possible. The extended end is provided with means to rotate it. Pulleys are shown, one loose and one tight, inthe-usual way, the pipe itself forming the shaft. When air alone is to be fed to the furnace a union-joint is placed on the end of the perforated pipe E, as seen at c, Figure 1, and to this union is applied a pipe, d, leading from a fan or other blast.

At Fig. 2 the pipe and pulleys are shown with the end of the pipe open, as shown at E. In this open end I insert a steam-injection nozzle, by means of which I draw in air to mix with the steam. In this instance the bloweris dispensed with. The heat of the furnace is so intense that theair and steam are highly surcharged in the pipe before their discharge into the furnace.

The letters a a representthe bearings for the rotating pipe. b b are the pulleys, d the steampipe, and ff the perforations. e is the controlling-valve, for the admission of air when air is used, and for the admission of steam when steam is used. The pipe is of course made of the most infusorial material; but metal will answer, as the blast emanating from the pipe wards off in a measure the very extreme heat. The perforations may be increased in diameter as the distance increases from the inductionpipe, as the pressure is greater near where the blast enters than it is nearer the end at its farthest exit.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with a furnace, ofa perforated pipe extending transversely or longitudinall y through the furnace-ch amber, above the fuel, and arranged to receive aforced blast of air or of-air and steam, and also adapted for rapid rotation, by means of which the fluid or gaseous contents are evenly distributed over the incandescent fuel, in the manner shown and set forth.

DAVID RENSHAVV.

Witnesses:

CHAS. F. SLEEPER, H. '1. LITOHFIELD. 

